Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

Saving Deceit...and the Problem With Blogs

If you meet enough people in your lifetime you eventually come to the conclusion that there is a scale upon which all people can be placed with "Tossers" at one end of the scale and "Savers" at the opposite end.

Extreme Tossers are the least sentimental among us. They toss stuff out readily, surround themselves with only minimal reminders of who they are, never kept a scrapbook in their life, and can't figure out why anyone would save that picture of Aunt Ruth grinning beside them at their 10th birthday.

Savers, on the other hand, can't imagine under what conditions they would ever toss that faded picture of toothy Aunt Ruth. They also keep old magazines, old catchers mitts, every bill they've ever received and even old answering machine tapes. You've got neat and organized Savers and messy disorganized Savers.

I'm somewhere in between. I hardly am an extreme saver, but I do like to keep artifacts that have what I think is substantial meaning. And that's why I can't figure out whether to keep or delete a comment that showed up on this blog in THIS post.

The comment, posted by someone at a Gmail e-mail account and calling themselves "Tom" reads like this:

" Is this the same Chateau Montelena from the new movie Bottle Shock? My wife and I happened to catch the movie at the Maui film festival when we were on vacation and I think it's about Montelena's first sucessful vintage? The one that beat out the French in the 70s to win the Judgement of Paris, right? The movie was great...sort of like Sidways, but more about the wine. I can't believe the French bought it back...how ironic! I guess it just goes to show how far California wines have come....check out the trailer if you're interested in wine. www.botthleshockthemovie.com"

When it was posted I glanced at it and moved on. Another comment on Fermentation. Then Fred Koeppel of "Bigger Than Your Head" alerted me and his other readers to the fact that it was a fake comment; that similar comments have been showing up across the Net and on blogs. Someone promoting the movie Bottle Shock is placing these kind of fake comments on blogs and forums across the Internet.

I can't figure out whether to delete this fake, commercial-inspired comment on my blog or delete it. Here's the problem: The comment is an artifact that represents a central element of a tool, The Internet, that we all use. It represents the inherent untrustworthy nature of the Internet where content is not controlled by a group who's reputation is based on the trustworthiness of the information they present. It is an example of why blogs do not and should not receive the same kind of reputation for trustworthiness that Old World, pulp-based newspapers and magazines thrived upon and still do in large measure.

"It's only a comment!" I know this. But even the most trivial things can drive home the point.

The Internet has exploded with websites and services that provide reviews, recommendations and opinions that more and more people are going to first to make decisions. How many of the reviews on Amazon and Yelp and TripAdvisor are fake, generated by folks that have an interest in the product or service under consideration? How many of the reviews at Cellar Tracker or Snooth or other similar sites are inadvertently filled with fake comments? How many people are completely fooled and influenced by this most unfortunate kind of trash?

This is the difference, by the way, between blogs and publications like The Wine Spectator, Wine & Spirits, Wine Enthusiast, Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine and The Grapevine. These publications are edited closely by a team of people with experience. Blogs are, generally, not.

I think I'm going to keep this fake post (with a slight alteration). I'll save it despite my natural tendency to want to delete its type and despite my place on the scale that places me nearer the Tossers. I think I want to be reminded that this blogging space that I love being in and that I think is fundamentally changing the way wine is presented to the world is a tool that readers can't entirely trust.

For what it's worth, I got curious about the fake comment and made an effort to track down the person or (more likely) the firm responsible for the rash of fake comments on Bottle Shock that are now showing up on the net. If I discover the source I'll do my duty and update this post with what I find.

 

New School - Old School

The new issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine is a fantastic read. The entire issue focuses on mavericks, revolutionaries and agents of change in wine (and food...for example, I learned that Goat is "in" and Pork Bellies are "out"...who knew!!)

I've long thought that Wine & Spirits Magazine is setting the bar high for the rest of the traditional wine magazines and this is the issue to discover what I'm talking about. It was nice to see Wine 2.0 well represented, particularly in the story on "Innovations in Wine Retail" by Tyler Colman. And there's a fine interview with Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary is just south of "mainstream" in the world of wine, which means, if I know Gary, that he'll be needing to move outside of the world of wine and introduce himself to the wide world of the American Mainstream soon).

What was really most enjoyable about this issue is the celebration of what's new, rather than a celebration of what's hot. Big Difference and the Wine & Spirits folks nailed it. The profiles of America's Best New Wineries was particularly enlightening. You'll find lots of new faces there, even if you are a wine geek that usually knows it all.

All that said, here's my challenge to Wine & Spirits Magazine. You've cataloged what's new and brilliant and innovative. Good. Now, how about cataloging those Old School Wineries and wine people and wine companies that, though perhaps under the radar for not being new and flashy, nevertheless continue to deliver the goods.

My criteria is the winery or wine company must be at least 30 years in the business and not owned by a corporate entity and not making more than 70,000 cases of wine.

I was talking with just such a winery today. They definitely fly under the radar, yet they've been flying for over 30 years. It's a family owned place. When I left the meeting I started thinking about all the "old school" wineries that don't necessarily get the attention that new ones do or that cult wineries do or that the big, huge wineries do. Yet, these Old Schoolers have been doing it for a very long time.

You'll find most of them in Napa, Sonoma, Livermore and the foothills. But they are out there. The cool thing about profiling them is that they will be "new" to many who themselves are new to wine.

Go check out the new Fall Issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine. It's on the newsstands now. It's outstanding. Then, send me the name of your favorite Old School winery or wine company.

Gratefulness

Have you ever sat down and started to tick off those people who have been instrumental to your career? Stopped and given some thought to who those folks are who actually made you  substantially better at what you do? I could do this, and it would make for an interesting post, if not an interesting personal inventory of my own gratefulness.

One of the folks on that list is Judd Wallenbrock, the President of Michel-Schlumberger in Sonoma County's Dry Creek Valley. Judd is much smarter than I am. Much! He's deliberative. One of the things that stuck with me from having worked with Judd is the importance of surveying the landscape before talking action. I can be impulsive, so this was a valuable lesson.

It turns out that Judd has recently finished his own survey—a survey of the world and utility of blogs. Further, it is clear that Judd has determined the Blog is something of value to Michel-Schlumberger and this has led to the creation of  BENCHLAND BLOG, a new blog written by the Michel-Schlumberger team.

(Judd has also joined the world of TWITTER, it seems)

I love Winery-written blogs. That is, I love to read really well done winery blogs because I'm fascinated by the ways in which a commercial enterprise goes about using a informal communications vehicle like a blog to reach out to consumers and friends. It's easy to suggest that a winery-run blog isn't much different than the old paper newsletters we used to write, design, print and deliver to mailing list members. But it is different. it is much easier to layer "personality" over the winery in a blog than it is a newsletter. Anyone who even contemplates publishing a blog and doing it well knows this from the get go and as such the reader should recognize that how the personality of a commercial venture is rolled out is likely given considerable thought by the blog owner. The big question for the reader is this: Am I reading something authentic or something contrived.

Judd Wallenbrock is at heart a marketer with a history of working at the highest levels in organizations such as with Mondavi, De Loach, Inertia Beverage Group, Roshambo, not to mention his own brand, Humanitas. And through all this work in marketing one thing about Judd has always struck me: In the battle between Authenticity and Contrivance, Judd always falls on the side of authenticity.

This is why Michel-Schlumberger's Benchland Blog is likely to turn out to be among the better winery blogs on the net.

The first few posts at Benchland Blog have naturally been about the Michel-Schlumberger estate in Dry Creek Valley—their organic farming, the terroir, their Valley, etc.  But if you read them closely, you'll see that the posts are not just about "what we do" at Michel-Schlumberger. The not-so-subtle subtext of these first posts by the Michel-Schlumberger team amounts to, "Good God, how luck am I to work at this place in this part of the world (giggle giddily!)."

I'm not sure this is the sort of "look how lucky I am" message I'd want to send from my winery blog. It smacks of "I'm luckier than Yoooouuu Aaarre!!". And to their credit, the folks at Michel-Schlumberger who write the blog don't communicate this blatantly. What's delightful however is that these folks are clearly so enamored with their place in the world that this gratefulness seems to animate every single post to this point.  It's an Authentic Giddiness. And I like it.

I think you are going to like it too. Bookmark the Benchland Blog. Follow Judd on Twitter. Make him a friend at Open Wine Consortium. 

On Wine Politics & New Voices

I finally had a chance to give serious face time to Tyler (Dr. Vino) Colman's newest book: WINE POLITICS: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. A book of this sort is so long overdue and I had been looking forward to it with such great anticipation that I nearly wet my pants when it finally arrived at my door.

I cracked it open somewhere over Nevada on my way to the National Conference of State Legislatures where a panel of industry folks moderated by Senator Sanchez from New Mexico was gong to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court decision, Granholm v. Heald. Apropos, no?

Here's the thing: If you write about wine and don't know the political history of the drink, you owe it to yourself and your readers to read this. If you are a lawmaker at the state level and deal with alcohol issues, you owe it to yourself and your constituents to read this book. If you are a wine lover and find yourself frustrated by the various laws that seem contrived to keep you from enjoying wine then you need to read this book.

What I was most interested in discovering was how an even handed treatment of the subject of wine politics would look and read like. I don't deal in evenhandedness when I approach and work in this area. I've seen enough to know that it accomplishes nothing to give those who work the system the benefit of the doubt. But Colman, in tackling this subject, is obligated to be evenhanded. And he pulls it off quite nicely.

The very first chapter asks, "What is Wine Politics". The answer Tyler provides is telling and explains the need for such a book:

"battles over the politics of wine are more often fought on the ground—sometimes literally. Where are the lines of the best growing zones drawn? Will society stigmatize wine or praise it? How can consumers buy their favorite wines or discover new ones? Is wine 'made in the vineyard,' as the industry likes to claim, or is it made in the lab and tested on focus groups for its consumer appeal? At stake in these battles are not only the livelihood of those in the industry but also the prestige and the profits of an industry whose sales reach $25 billion in the United States alone."

After offering a brief history of wine in France and the United States in Chapter two we move on to the meat of the book, an examination of critical issues in the wine industry that play out in a political framework: Appellations & Quality, American coalitions for and against wine, who dictates tastes and styles of wine, and the politics of environmentalism and wine and where they meet.

Naturally, I was most interested in how Colman dealt with the issue of direct shipment of wine, an issue that has been among the most public of political wine battles in America for the past 20 years. This discussion falls into the chapter appropriately named, "Baptists and Bootleggers". The term is a reference on the one hand to the odd coalition that supported Prohibition and on the other hand to the more recent coalition of  social conservatives often driven by religious imperatives and alcohol wholesalers that demand economic protection, both of whom have no interest in, and are willing to work furiously against, allowing consumers alternative channels to access the diverse and growing number of wines available in the country beyond the sacred three-tier system.

It would have been all to easy for a lesser writer to indulge in demonization in this chapter. It would have been very easy to write unflattering things about the nasty, disingenuous and heavy handed actions of American alcohol wholesalers' attempts to screw wine consumers and game the political system for their own economic benefit. Tyler will have none of this.

Rather, he simply lets the story of direct shipping and its political battles play out in his pages in a fairly matter of fact way.  Tyler's reporting on how the direct shipping battles progress goes just deep enough so that we are told how and when giant wholesaler Southern Wine & Spirits first asked in response to direct shipment of wine, "Is there any way to stop this". On the other hand, his explanations of the politics of direct shipping do not descend into esoterica, a real possibility where this subject is concerned.

Every state politician in America should at least be made to read the "Baptists and Bootleggers" chapter in this book. It provides a simple and straightforward answer to the question I think too many of them have, but don't know the answer to, when confronted with alcohol-related legislation: "Why is this a big deal and why are consumers jamming my phone lines over a bottle of wine?"

Tyler's book is foundational in the sense that it provides an excellent though not overwrought introduction to the critical issues that surround wine politics and the business of wine. Anyone in the business who does not know this stuff now has a resource where it is all laid out. Those wine lovers who have delved so deeply into the world of wine that they need context to satisfy their mind will also find great value in "Wine Politics".

On Tyler Colman, let me say this: If he chooses to, Tyler could make a very long career out of reporting on wine, educating both wine lovers and the industry, and writing more books on all manner of subjects revolving around wine. This is not an easy thing to do, which is my round about way of saying Tyler Coleman is among the leading pens of a new, younger generation of wine writers who will, hopefully, take those of us who grew into wine with the old guard of writers into our old age happily satisfied with the state of American wine writing and reporting.

"Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink"
By Tyler Colman
University of California Press
2008

Reason & Superstition

I've always enjoyed taking in a good battle between reason and superstition. They've been going on regularly now for quite some time, dating at least since Francis Bacon threw down the gauntlet with "Novum Organum" in 1620.

The battles seem never ending and that's just fine with me since they provide loads of entertainment value, particularly when the waring parties find themselves at the end of their arguments and, surprise, the opposition is not convinced. And even as we sit back and watch the world views flail at each other, we need to be prepared to be enlightened.

Today, we get to see these battles played out in diatribes issued forth in service of Intelligent Design or natural selection, in the occasional news story on psychotic mothers and fathers wed to the faith of Christian Science and the death of their children, in ancient battles between peoples who claim god gave them the land, and in rancid and acrimonious debates over life, death, sex and birth.

I recently came across a writer of fiction who trades in explorations of the intricacies and absurdities of the battle between reason and superstition. James Morrow is hard to nail down. His early work appeared mainly in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazines, but this seemed only the case because the focus of his short stories had no better place to appear, not because they were stories of ray guns, alien worlds or nanotechnology run amok.

His most recent novels, "The Philosopher's Apprentice" and "The Last Witchfinder" are both satire and social commentary wrapped up inside the ongoing Reason V. Superstition war. And they are terrific books. However, it's his collection of short stories, "Bible Stories for Adults", that truly makes one laugh out loud as well as feel a pinch of embarrassment for the ugly truths of western civilization we all must live with...and a bit too comfortably at that.

But here's the point: Having delved into Morrow extensively of late, I'm left thinking about where wine works itself into the battle between superstition and reason; where the myths we winos carry with us are too easily allowed to slide around reason and keep moving.

I think they number in the many...

...that quality in wine is definable and objective
...that terroir comes from the soil
...that wine can be judged with a number assigned by a single person and have meaning
...that the "great wines of the world" are few and far between

...just to begin with.

It strikes me that these and other such issues provoke in winos similar battles that can be described as reason v. superstition. Happily for us wine lovers, the outcome of our disagreement over these and other thorny issues rarely if ever lead to burnings at the stake, volatile school board elections, putting children's lives at stake or losses in personal autonomy. Instead, they merely lead to another glass of wine and maybe a blog post or two.

Buying Back Into Quality

Napa's Chateau Montelena Sold to Bordeaux's Cos d'Estournel

"This is the ultimate recognition, that the French are now buying these great California wineries," said Jon Fredrikson, a wine industry consultant and publisher of the Gomberg-Fredrikson report"

"It's just evidence of the growing respect for what is being done in America with wine."—Vic Motto

California's winemaking prowess matched that of France and the rest of the world years ago. I wonder if this sale isn't a matter of the French trying to buy back into the quality game?

Driving Jesus To Drink

" 'Sunday is God's day', he said. 'We shouldn't be out sipping on wine and whiskey.'—What a bunch of BS. Why should I have to suffer because a handful of bible-thumpers decide on a lark that drinking on Sunday is bad. You know what Jesus would do? He'd drive over to the next county with me and that way we could split a twelve pack."

This semi-lucid statement comes from the comment section of the Louisville-Courier that reports Sheperdsville Rejects Sunday Alcohol Sales.

As you may recall, all of Colorado recently turned the other cheek and instituted Sunday alcohol sales. More and more this type of battle fascinates me and there is no lack of battles over when and where people can legally down a 12-pack with Jesus. It would be helpful if Jesus actually came out definitively on one side or the other on the issue of tippling and the Sabbath. It would clear up what appears to be a couple of controversial questions: What does Jesus think of drinking? And, was the water Jesus turned into wine just for display purposes or did he do is magic for drink'in purposes?

When I read these stories I'm reminded of why in my early college years I turned from English to History as a Major and even went on to get the MA in history: the diversity of people and thought in America is astounding. Even before the great migrations to the U.S. beginning with the Germans, then the massive Irish influx, then the Italian and middle European arrivals all the way up to the Latino migration to the U.S of the current day, America was a country of diverse people with a wide variety of ideas on what was right and wrong. At the beginning of the 18th century the Massachusetts Puritans and Calvinists didn't think much of the much more accepting Quakers in Pennsylvania, while the more private affair that was Anglicanism in the South tended to be content with a faith the helped identify the gentry.

Alcohol laws are but one lens through which to view the local cultures of the United States. In a way it makes great Jeffersonian sense to give localities the power to enact and control their laws concerning sin. There are indeed many different views as to what constitutes a sin.

And yet, we don't know for sure whether Jesus would indeed drive 30 miles on a Sunday to cross state or county lines to get his hands on a 12 pack. That's the real question, isn't it?

Eat, Walk, Drink, Eat, Gamble, Drink, Walk, Eat...

I head out Wednesday for a few days in my favorite American city: New Orleans. The National Conference of State Legislatures is having its annual Legislative Summit and Direct Shipment of Wine is on the agenda.

While the majority of my time will be spent at the Ernest Morial Convention Center and in meetings with colleagues, I will have some time to re-explore a city I've never been able to get enough of. In the numerous times I've been to New Orleans I've found myself variously elated, repulsed, depressed, frightened, inspired, awed and surprised by what I've seen, experienced, eaten and and avoided.

New Orleans wears its history and its foibles on its sleeve and can't find the nerve to apologize for any of it. This is what I like most about the city. It's people and the city's culture are comfortably at home and content with its equally amazing and forbodding personality.

This won't be like most of my trips to New Orleans. I like to go for 5-7 days at a time and spend each of those days doing the same thing: Eat, walk, drink, eat, gamble, drink, walk, eat...repeat. This time it's business. And while I'm looking to accomplish a lot on behalf of wine retailers and wine consumers who merely want the chance to do business together, I really do wish I were going to New Orleans to eat, walk, drink, eat, gamble, drink, walk, eat...repeat.

The panel on direct shipping should be informative and even a bit contentious. Among those addressing legislators from across the country and their aides who will be in attendance are Tracy Genesen of Kirkland & Ellis and one of the leading wine lawyers in America, Steve Gross from the California Wine Institute who knows the state of America's wine laws as well as anyone, Stephen  Diamond of the University of Miami School of Law and who is not a friend to wine loving consumers and Associate General Counsel Karin Moore of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, one of the leading opponents of free and fair trade in wine.

The fact that Direct Shipping is on the agenda at this conference indicates that alcohol legislation remains a high priority for many lawmakers. This should not come as a surprise. It's not too much to suggest that the state of American alcohol laws is in greater flux today than at nearly any time since the end of Prohibition.

So while vigorously and intelligently representing Specialty Wine Retailers Association will be constantly on my mind from Wednesday through Saturday, I will be looking for a few hours to soak up the evil goodness that is New Orleans.

It's a bit ironic that I go to New Orleans this time in defense of wine and wine drinkers and wine retailers because New Orleans has never been a place where I've had much desire at all to indulge in wine. New Orleans has always been a place I've found much better suited to bourbon, the Sazerac, the Gin Fiz, and even the occasional Hurricane when I've finally abandoned all good sense (the Hurricane is a nasty, nasty drink that one should only consume in pinch or if one finds themselves inexplicably in front of Pat O'Brien's late at night and within walking distance of a good bed).

Word is that while a good portion of New Orleans is coming back to life after Katrina, much of the city is still a dead zone. I've heard people suggest that New Orleans should never have been built where it is and shouldn't be rebuilt given its lower than sea level disposition—making it is just a disaster waiting to happen again. Not rebuilding New Orleans exactly where it is strikes me as being a notion just as evil as the City itself, but not nearly as delicious as the city itself.

Unmercifully and Honestly Ironic

One of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's many great roles was his brilliant and intimate portrayal of the uncool Cream Magazine Editor and writer Lester Bangs in the Cameron Crowe film "Almost Famous". Hoffman portrays the perennially uncool Bangs who, in 1973, believes Rock n Roll is in its death throws due to the "swill merchants" that have taken over the business of rock n roll and only care about business.

There is a wonderful line in the film where Bangs is counseling a 15 year-old who must write a 3,000 word story for Rolling Stones about a band he's been traveling with, but finds he's having trouble with the assignment due to the friendships he's formed with the band members. Bangs tells the budding writer:

"I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful."

Could there be better advice for anyone writing about any topic, including wine and the wine industry? I think not. It's particularly good advice for folks considering or currently critiquing wine. No one should ever imagine theirs is the last word on any subject, including the quality of a wine. But this small fact shouldn't stop anyone from being perfectly clear as to what they think about a wine and why they think it.

This is a controversial notion within the wine reviewing community. "Why should I take time to inform my readers of a bad or mediocre wine when there are so many good wines out there I can recommend to them?"

My best response to that legitimate idea is, are you a critic or not? The definition of critic, be it of wine, film, music or dance or architecture, is not "cheerleader." It is not sycophant. It is not Happymongering. It is explaining, in your view, what is good, what is not good, what is interesting, what is important and what is significant about the creative work under consideration and then, possibly, suggesting how the reader respond.

I hope that coming from me this sounds ironic to many of you who know that my profession is, in large part, publicist. As a publicist, I'm charged by my clients with not merely helping them communicating to media and critics the client's  place in the world, but in helping them explain their place in a way that leads critics and writers to be more likely to appreciate that place in the world. But, the good writers and good critics know this is my job. And there begins something of a dance long known as the "Journalist-Publicist Pirouette".

There is an agreement, largely unstated, that exists between the dance partners: The publicist will tell the the journalist the truth—always. Though the publicist may not say what they think. It is, after all, not the publicist's story. It is the client's story and that's the story the publicist will tell. The journalists knows this—or at least should. On the other hand, the journalists promises to be accurate in their account of the publicist's or client's words, statements and comments. However, the publicist knows that the words and stories they offer the journalist won't always comprise the whole story they tell their readers.

Lester Bang's advice to the budding writer to always be honest and unmerciful is advice that wineries and others who court the press should assume is taken to heart by the media. It isn't always taken to heart, particularly by wine critics, and for this wineries should praise Bacchus. But it shouldn't be assumed this will always be the case and no one should be surprised or outraged when it's not the case.

Blogging For Sara Lee & the FBI

Just who is reading wine blogs? Sometimes you get the impression it's other wine bloggers and members of the wine industry.

Well, I've always been fascinated by this question, and more specifically, who is reading this wine blog. The fact is, my readers are far more interesting than I am.

What's cool is that in using StatCounter to track my readership, unique visitors, page views, etc, I can also discover which Internet Service Providers are accessing FERMENTATION. Mostly it's only the name of the the common service providers such as Comcast, Sonic, Roadrunner, Cox, etc...the big boys...that show up on the list in StatCounter. But sometimes, you get the names of the businesses or institutions to which the ISP is connected. I can't see WHO is reading FERMENTATION, but I can sometimes see the organization with which they are connected.

Such as:

Boston University
Star Tribune Newspaper
U.s. Environmental Protection Agency
General Electric Company
Sara Lee
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Albert Einstein College Of Medicine
M. Shanken Communications
State Of Idaho
American Cancer Society
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Wells Fargo And Company
Cost Plus World Markets Inc
Alcohol Research Group
Mayo Foundation
News Corporation
The Providence Journal
Rangsit University
West Coast Pathology

I like to imagine an FBI agent sitting in his office wishing he had a job in the wine business and reading FERMENTATION to get a taste, rather than an FBI agent sitting in his office investigating Tom Wark.

I also get a kick out of the idea of an employee at Sara Lee Corp munching on an "Original Smooth & Creamy Cheese Cake" on their lunch break and perusing FERMENTATION.

The point, of course, is that it's not just other wine bloggers and industry types that read wine blogs. It is all sorts of folks.